My parents left for Taiwan, to be more exact, Taipei, on Monday morning. Since I had to wake up early for Chinese intensive, I was able to catch them before they left. Jean, on the other hand, was sound asleep. My mom specially printed out a 4-page household chore manual for Jean and I and decorated the fridge with it. It turned out pretty useful in the days that followed.
Sorry, side track a bit. Chinese intensive was horrible. 4 hours of Chinese a day (not including homework) can really kill a significant portion of my brain cells. Or maybe I just have nothing to lose. 7 compos and 6 Paper 2s, including homework. I'm thankful I managed to do some homework during camp free time. I even managed to activate zhongling ds and andrew to help me with my gong han.
Monday night was probably the most lonely night in my entire history. I went back home at 11pm cus of Chinese intensive in the morning. Jean stayed over at the camp. Mom called me to check if I was still alive. No kidding, more than just my sruvival. Once I was home, I was faced with chores. Washing clothes, hanging them, folding clothes, feeding the fish, replnishing the fish tank water (my dad made it irrigate plants from the tank so there are more nutrients), emptying the dustbins and countless other tasks. I was paranoid about forgetting any thing. This home alone adventure let me learn to be more responsible. If I left anything out of place, or didn't do what I was supposed to do, I'd have to somehow survive the consequences. No parents to help fix up things for me, or put things back to normal. It's the feeling like, anything I do will affect my survival. It was also weird to go sleep and remember that I'm the only one in the house. Anyway, I managed to survive till the next morning. Slept for 4 hours.
The house key is also a stressor. Before I go out, I always triple check that I'm carrying the keys. Cus my door is the type where once it slams shut, it's locked from the outside, so you can imgaine how conscious I am before closing the door.
Tuesday was similar to Monday, except camp was increasingly eventful. I had to lead the special worship session (1 hour plus) after I came from school. So I quickly chionged down my lunch and practiced with Jean (she was on the piano, and I think she can play/improvise better than when she's set to a score. maybe she should have picked up piano earlier). The session did not go as I had planned, in fact, even better. The sharing slots put in had rather good response. It was just very different from other sharings in church. People were really honest and it was quite incredible knowing how camp had changed some lives. I admit the camp comm was really quite afraid of how the camp would turn out at first. March is a hectic holiday but we decided to go on with it. But I think my opinion about the camp changed a lot. This camp was quite different from the past tf camps for me. Though there was a considerably smaller group (around 16-18 of us), it was the most sincere one, and that's probably the advantage of a smaller group.
There was the traditional BBQ and night games - the game where everyone has to run around the whole Changi chalet area (the boardwalk included) and find clues to determine the murderer. I think this time, the difficulty level was relatively higher. It took my group 1 hour to find the first clue. Jean and I had to leave at around 12am+ to go home, leaving Jacky and zhongling ds to finish off the last 6 clues. My group had a lot of people who left early cus of school. They played till 2.30am. I will find out more from jacky on how it went some time. I think jean gave a detailed-enough recount of the games. But anyway, my legs were really jelly-like after all the running during the night games. I think I covered at least 4km. Poor people who stayed till the games ended.
Note: time now on where my recount is - 1am Wednesday.
So this morning, it was slightly better because Jean was at home to help me with house chores. Tried to finish up everything even though we were in a rather groggy state of mind. At least it didn't seem so quiet and lonely at home. Managed to sleep at 3am+ and survived till later in the morning. Slept for 3 hours.
Same thing on Wednesday, except after Chinese intensive, didn't have to go for camp cus they checked out at 10am. Had strings from 1.30 - 5.30pm. The sun really does something to Jane. She kept laughing and telling jokes. Natalie and i were somewhat stunned. Anyway, after strings, grandparents picked me up for dinner at their house. I was surprised to find Jensen in the car. He rarely takes the initiative to go out. Most of the time, it's Jerome, the super active one.
After that, packed Jerome along and went down to Taka (outside) to watch the string and guitar ensemble perform. Got to hear their SYF pieces. The conductor isn't conducting for them for SYF, strings I mean. And I realised that the first column of violin ones really move a lot. A lot. Smss ensemble needs some structured choreography to move. I hope MGS gets gold with honours. Not so jean can gloat about it at home, but so that smss can get silver. I think their ensemble is like smss's, just that their's is a larger version of it. They, too, face an over crowding violin 2 population and an ageing overall population. But of course, they overpower us in terms of volume and concentration of quality. I met Natalie there. We keep bumping into each other for MGSensemble concerts. Loyal supporters, or rather, spies for the SYF.
I managed to sleep at 1am that night clinched 7 hours of much needed sleep. Today was mainly spent completing my pile of homework. I think I'm 70% completed, but there's still enough to keep me entertained for the rest of the holiday.
And so yay, my parents should be home tomorrow, and life can return to normal. I won't have to worry to much about house hold chores. This experience was enjoyable and challenging.
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